An autonomic computing system is a computing system that includes a continuous control loop for monitoring activities that take place and for taking corrective actions as needed to adjust the system so that the system continues to perform its intended functionality and satisfy its intended objectives. Existing autonomic computing systems typically rely on a “bottom up” approach to implement this control loop. In particular, such an autonomic computing system typically includes one or more managed constituent elements that provide control loop functionality. Thus, to impart autonomicity within a computing system, the system has to be designed, developed, and implemented at an early stage to include such elements.
Such a “bottom up” approach to implementing a control loop within a computing system to provide the system with autonomicity can be disadvantageous. For instance, for existing computing systems that do not have autonomicity, adding one or more such elements can be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve without completely redesigning the systems at undue time and/or expense. Furthermore, constructing a computing system so that it is planned from the beginning to have autonomicity can itself even be laborious, especially where the system in question is or will be relatively large and/or complex. These and other shortcomings of the prior art are addressed by the present invention.